Divided Loyalty
by Anna C. Poseidon
Summary: At the lake, Tawnypelt is having trouble knowing whether she truly belongs in ShadowClan. This is my first SunClan challenge!


**Sorry if the time period and the cats that appear don't really match up. I only know the general time span that these cats lived.**

Tawnypelt padded out of the warrior's den, yawning. She joined the other waking warriors to sit near Russetfur as she assigned patrols.

"Can I join a hunting patrol, Russetfur?" Tawnypelt meowed. The red-furred deputy turned her gaze toward her.

"No, sorry. I need cats for the border patrol, at the ThunderClan border," she answered apologetically, then added, "You can lead. Take Rowanclaw, Applefur, and Nightwing." Russetfur turned back to her other warriors, so Tawnypelt reluctantly padded back to the warriors den to fetch Rowanclaw.

Tawnypelt didn't like taking the ThunderClan border. Not because she didn't like seeing her brother, Brambleclaw, or because she was scared she might leave to rejoin her birth Clan. No, wanting to go back wasn't Tawnypelt's problem. She was worried her Clanmates would question her loyalty. Blackstar hadn't ever shown his trust in her, and he constantly seemed to be testing her, placing her in battle patrols against ThunderClan whenever the opportunity arose, or sending her to check the border, like today. Tawnypelt was desperate to show her loyalty,and she didn't have any desire to leave ShadowClan. This Clan was her home, and it always would be.

Rowanclaw padded groggily out to join Tawnypelt, and he twined his tail around hers affectionately.

_How could any cat doubt my loyalty, _Tawnypelt thought privately, _when I have a mate and three kits, all in ShadowClan?_ She gathered the rest of the cats in her patrol and they headed out of camp.

Tawnypelt trod comfortably through the tall pine trees, at ease in her surroundings. These were the trees she was familiar with, not ThunderClan's bushy undergrowth.

Arriving at the ThunderClan border, Tawnypelt marked a bush while her patrol sniffed suspiciously around the ThunderClan markers.

"No sign of intruders, Tawnypelt," Applefur reported, a few fox-lengths away.

"Good. Let's reset our markers and head farther up." Tawnypelt padded over to a shrub that lay right on the border. She bent down to sniff it, and thought she scented something familiar. Shaking her head, she marked the shrub and continued down the border a little ways. She sniffed intently, the familiar scent flooding her nostrils.

"You guys go on ahead, I'm gonna check out something." Tawnypelt called to her patrol, who acknowledged her with flicks of their tails. Checking they had gone far enough away, she turned her nose back to the ground and followed the strange scent. She didn't have to look for long; Before she had gotten far, she recognized a brown tabby pelt stalking a thrush in the undergrowth on ThunderClan's side of the border. Amber eyes stared intently at the bird, oblivious to Tawnypelt's approach.

"Brambleclaw?" Tawnypelt called softly. The thrush heard her and flew into the treetops, earning a frustrated hiss from Tawnypelt's brother.

"You scared my prey, mange-" Brambleclaw stopped mid-growl. "Tawnypelt! I didn't see you there."

"Hi. You… you shouldn't treat me any differently than any other ShadowClan cat." Tawnypelt shifted uncomfortably.

"Sorry, I can't help it. You're my sister. But fine, if you prefer, mange-pelt…" Brambleclaw teased. "So what brings you to this edge of ShadowClan today?" he asked curiously..

"I was patrolling. You?" she replied politely.

"Hunting, alone." He answered.

"Ok. Well, goodbye then, Brambleclaw," Tawnypelt meowed awkwardly, shifting to leave.

"If you must. Good luck, sister." Tawnypelt's litter-brother's scent bathed her tongue, and mixed with the scent of ThunderClan trees to cause a slight stirring of nostalgia. Tawnypelt shook her head to clear it, and padded away.

She caught up with her patrol, who were checking the borders farther up.

"I just can't stand that ThunderClan scent. It smells so strange," Applefur was saying.

"Yeah." Nightwing agreed, wrinkling her nose.

Tawnypelt couldn't join in. Secretly she didn't mind the familiar scent of ThunderClan. It brought to mind distant memories of being a kit. Why couldn't all Clans live together? Was the warrior code right?

Later that night, she couldn't sleep. She kept wondering if she truly belonged in ShadowClan, or in her native home of ThunderClan. Finally she gave up trying to go to sleep and padded out of the den, and out of camp. She wandered through the forest, and soon realized her paws were taking her towards the Moonpool. She stopped to rest a couple times, and the journey took a while, but eventually she reached the pool. She rested her head on her paws and lapped up some water.

StarClan cats appeared, shimmering, before her eyes, for a moment, and then she was whisked away to a stretching field, then a towering mountain, a vast, unfamiliar forest, and finally to the large maze of Twolegplace. After the images passed Tawnypelt felt exhausted, as though she had walked a million pawsteps. Again the StarClan cats appeared, gazing at her warmly.

"You know where your heart lies," Tallstarof WindClan told her, and he exchanged a look with a brown, almost pinkish she-cat with blue eyes. "Follow it."

Tawnypeltwoke up. She felt as though she had journeyed long and far. She missed home more than ever, and the dream-journey had made her realize just where that was. She had some misgivings about whether the warrior code was right, in keeping Clans separate, but now she realized that the code was necessary to know where you belong.


End file.
